Today we have had less wind than yestarday. It has been decreasing during the day, and we have ended up with no wind after the second race. We have had to wait a lot, and in the end, we have been able to sail the third scheduled race of the day. Yesterday we ended up 10th in the overall, but results didn't come out till late so that is why I couldn't include it in my writing. Today we have sailed in the red group, and it's the one that sails later, after the yellow group. We have started with north wind 10-7 knots in the first race. We have started well, quickly, and heading the side we wanted. We were third in the upwind mark, with the americans just behind us, and, after them, a group of boats really close. Our priority was to escape the group of boats, so we have decided to gybe before getting to the layline, also to avoid problems with the americans. So, in a good wave we have decided to gybe, but, to our surprise, the american has gybed faster than us! I didn't really understand, and after racing the Americans have told us that surprisingly they had gybed just there as well, so that is why they have finished gybing before. Getting to the leeward mark we have tried to get the interior position from the americans, but they have passed ok and we have touched the bouy (we haven't taken into account the strong current). We have had to penalize ourselves and we were then 5th. In the last downwind, we had to attack the ones in front of us, so we have gybed before, getting more pressure. We have ended up in 4th position. It seems 4 is our number here in Australia.
The second race has started with less wind. We have started from the other side as we have thought there was more wind there. But then the ones at our left seemed to have more wind than us (crazy!). We were 5th in the first mark. We have decided to go to the side where there was more wind but also more current in the completely opposite direction. We have done right! We were 2nd in the leeward gate! We have just tried to keep the position, and we have ended 2nd, very well with such a complicated day with shifts and gusts. Our equipment is doing very well, we are very happy because we've had 2 days with little wind in which we have done well. We had optimizad everything for lots of wind, so we are expecting it desperately!
We have started quite well although a group which was more leeward has done it better. We have tacked quickly to go to the new wind which some boats already had. We were 7th in the first mark. Then the wind has decreased in intensity, and a new wind has entered the course. In the end we have finished 6h. A good result for a race which seemed complicated before starting. So we end the day with 4-2-6 which makes us quite happy. We are 7th in the overall, 12 points away from the Australians who have done 1-3-1 today. Tomorrow we will be in the yellow group, which means we will sail in the same course as today but early in the morning if there's any wind.
Hugs.
Iker
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